Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor (33) dives over Oregon State safety Anthony Watkins (3) during the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game in Stanford, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012. Stanford won 27-23.

Today’s question about the Broncos comes from Jim Dillon in Copley, Ohio:

Q: I wanted to know the Broncos’ interest, if any, in Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor. He’s a big back, great at pass protection and can catch out of the backfield. Is John Elway looking at this RB from his alma mater? What are your thoughts?

A: Jim, whenever teams consider a draft prospect, the grade given is a collection of pieces based on height, weight, speed, play speed, performance in big games, off-the-field issues, injuries, work ethic.

How the pieces fit together varies from player to player and the importance of each piece varies from team to team.

Taylor is one of those players — NFL teams like virtually every piece except one — his top-end, straight-line speed. And where Taylor gets drafted will depend on how much importance teams place on that one thing.

I believe he is a solid second day pick. He was the most consistent running back at the Senior Bowl and showed the ability to find some room to work and consistently make positive yardage against plenty of the draft’s fastest prospects for his week in Mobile.

His play speed is fine. He is a three-time 1,000-yard rusher — 1,137 yards in 2010, 1,330 yards in 2011 and 1,442 yards this past season — who had three seasons with at least 25 receptions and is a more-than-willing pass blocker.

Taylor runs with vision and patience. I think he has one of the more important traits a runner can have in the draft, the ability to know, at game speed, when to be patient and wait for his blockers to do their work and when to stick his foot in the ground get into the hole and get upfield.

Backs who waste steps, are hesitant, don’t last very long.

At 5-foot-9 1/8, 214 pounds, he’s got good size/strength numbers and doesn’t waste opportunities with the ball in his hands. So, there is a lot of reasons to expect Taylor would come in and contribute to an NFL offense from his first day.

But scouts are also natural, well-honed skeptics, it comes with the job, especially in the weeks leading up to the draft when evaluations tend to be what’s wrong with a player.

For Taylor it’s the 4.76 clocking in the 40-yard dash that concerns some. The feeling is it caps his career because when the wear and tear of the position takes away some of his speed, as it does for all runners in the league, it makes his career window a little shorter because his speed is already border-line as he enters the league.

So, some teams are simply going to look at him as a grinder, who won’t be able to create many big plays with a shorter career timeline than some other players at the position.

Couple that with 823 career carries at Stanford and Taylor has already put plenty of football mileage on his personal odometer. That experience goes give him a big body of work for people to consider and does show his consistency as he averaged 5.1, 5.5 and 4.8 yards per carry respectively in his final three seasons at Stanford.

But this is a football player who can do most of the things NFL teams want their running backs to do down-to-down, especially in pass protection these days. The Broncos have certainly given him a long look and if they don’t use their opening pick on a running back Taylor is an option at the bottom of the second round or beyond, if he’s still there.

The work of their running backs in pass protection was a constant source of frustration for them last season and that component is going to be a big part of the decision if they use a pick on a running back during the selection weekend.

They are also looking for a bigger back, or at least a back who plays like a bigger back. To that end Taylor finishes runs well, he gets the most out of almost every carry.

He had just 58 negative yards in 322 carries in 2012, 33 negative yards in 242 carries in 2011 and 38 negative yards in 223 carries in 2010. Those numbers show, as does the game video, a player with good lean when he runs because Taylor did most of his work on inside runs in the Cardinal offense.

In a college football landscape filled with spread offenses, running out of the shotgun almost exclusively, Taylor did the bulk his work out of power formations, also something working in his favor.

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